Raphael (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)
Raphael, often shortened to Raph, is one of the four protagonists of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics and all related media. In the Mirage/Image Comics, all four turtles wear red bandanas over their eyes, but unlike his brothers in other versions, he is the only one who keeps the red bandana. Raphael wields twin sai as his primary weapon. (In the Next Mutation series, his sai stick together to make a staff-like weapon.) He is generally the most likely to experience extremes of emotion, and is usually depicted as being aggressive, sullen, maddened, rebellious, and from Canada. The origin of Raphael's anger is not always fully explored, but in some incarnations appears to stem partly from the realization that they are the only creatures of their kind and ultimately alone. He also has a somewhat turbulent relationship with his older brother Leonardo because Leonardo is seen as the group's leader. Raphael is named after the 16th-century Italian painter Raphael. In 2011 Raphael placed 23rd on IGN's Top 100 Comic Book Heroes, a list that did not feature any of his brothers. Movies Original trilogy (1990-1993) In the 1990 film adaptation, Raphael is voiced by Josh Pais. He speaks with a distinctive tough-sounding Lower East Side accent (that was imitated in the later versions of TMNT), and is the turtle whose character is explored most completely. He has a quick temper, uses mild language and verbally challenges Leonardo. This film focuses more so on his feeling of isolation from his brothers and sense of regret and anger when Splinter is eventually captured from the Shredder. Here, it is established that he shares a closer relationship with news reporter April O'Neil having saved her from the Foot Clan on several occasions. In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze, he is played by Kenn Troum, and voiced by Laurie Faso, and in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III film he is played by Matt Hill, and dubbed by Tim Kelleher. In the films, he is still angry and occasionally goes off by himself in the second movie, but has a soft spot for the young people the team meets. It is also shown that he has an appreciation for nature as it appears to calm him. 2007 film In TMNT, Raphael is voiced by Nolan North. In Leonardo's absence, he has spent his nights as an armored vigilante known as The Nightwatcher. His time as the Nightwatcher is one of the few during which Raphael uses a different ninjitsu weapon, the manriki: weighted chains that can be concealed in the hands and used from considerable distances. Unlike his sai, the manriki are typically not lethal weapons, though they could crush a skull if used with enough force. In this movie, the animosity between Raphael and Leonardo is the most straight-forward due to Raphael's anger at his brother leaving. He resents Leonardo's bossing them around and treating them like "Leo's little soldiers" when he (at least in Raphael's opinion) abandoned them for at least a year. This leads to a physical confrontation between Raphael and Leonardo and resulting in Raphael almost mortally wounding Leonardo before retreating - suddenly realising what he was about to do, and running in fear from his anger. After Leonardo is kidnapped, Raphael then acknowledges his mistake to Master Splinter and confesses what happened and why he understood the reason Leonardo was chosen as the leader. Master Splinter then explains to Raphael that his tendency to put the world's problems on his own shoulders as a protector of the weak is a great quality and that while he may not be his favorite student, it does not mean he is his least favorite son. Master Splinter then tells Raphael that his strength, his passion, and his loyalty to the people he cares about are also merits of a great leader, if it can be tempered with compassion. After Raphael, the Turtles, as well as Casey and April rescue Leonardo, Raphael is shown to be eager to fight alongside his brother instead of against him. Raph's relationship with Donatello is also explored more when Donatello makes it clear that he doesn't like the Nightwatcher. This is due to the Nightwatcher using tactics like Raph's and due to the reason that Donnie believes that the team still exists where as Raph does not. Donnie also doesn't support Mikey's admiration of The Nightwatcher and even though Donnie doesn't know that Raph is The Nightwatcher, believes that Raph should get a normal job to support the family. Donnie's dislike of The Nightwatcher alone seems to mildly anger Raph and then there's the fact that Splinter put Donnie in charge of the turtles while Leo was away. This factor annoys Raph a little more and leads to Raphael almost punching Donnie in the face; smirking when his brother flinches. Relaunch Raphael appears in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles portrayed by Alan Ritchson. In the film, he is aggressive and struggles with following orders. He often loses his temper and has fierce independence, which does not suit well with his brother Leonardo. He is the first turtle April O' Neil sees after stopping the Foot, although she does not get a good look at him and thinks he's a man. When April takes their picture Raph threatens her, even after Donatello erases her phone's memory. In the battle at the Turtle's lair with the Foot, Raph is crushed under rubble and is presumed dead. Because of this, he is the only turtle not captured by the Foot. When he awakes, he finds a dying Splinter who tells him and April to save his brothers. They team up with Vern Fenwick to help him save his brothers from Sacks industries, where he fights Shredder to buy April and Vern time to save his brothers. After rescuing his brothers and defeating the Shredder, Raphael and his brothers use mutagen to save Splinter's life. He along with Donatello and Leonardo don't try to get April's attention unlike Michelangelo who does voice his feelings to April. Although in the end of the movie he does show appreciation to her for sacrificing everything for them. In this adaption, Raphael isn't as hot headed and doesn't clash with Leonardo over leadership although they have a brief argument over the Hatamishi which Raphael refuses to go to and claims he'll leave which Leo debunks. He is more close to his brothers in the movie than in most adaptions. He does still get annoyed at Donatello when he does talk of his calculations in a way the others don't understand. During the fight when the turtles escape Sack's Estate. He mocks Donatello over his constant talk than fighting by saying "Thanks for the traffic update Donnie, you doing sports and weather next?", to which Donnie replies, "If your going to be nasty about it than I guess you don't want to know that there's a 400 foot drop in 53 seconds". In the movie Raphael is the only turtle to not get captured by the Foot and Shredder while his brothers are. It should be noted he is the only turtle in the movie to stay true to his other adaptations by not wearing any footwear. Leonardo has custom made Japanese shoes, Michelangelo has trainers although you can partly see his toes and Donatello who has boots and you can partly see his toes too. He will appear in the sequel, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: Half Shell. External links *Raphael profile on official TMNT web site Category:Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series Category:Characters Category:Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990) Character Category:Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze Character Category:Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III Character Category:TMNT Character Category:Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014) Character